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The volume appears to contain one or more unrecoverable problems...

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I searched the internet using google and came across a post from 2005 on this forum which discussed the problem I am having, although it didn't seem to have a conclusion, the assistance given was very good.

I have a fujitsu-siemens scaleo t desktop which from the posts I have read seems like my hard drive is on it's last legs. Which is ok because I recently bought a seagate external hard drive so that I could backup and copy all the files from my pc (which I had been using mainly for storage) as I have a laptop.

I had an idea that as the make of the pc is not all that good I may start to have problems and was trying to pre-empt ...... unfortunately it seems the pc has beaten me to it and started to die before I could get all the files off the hard drive onto the seagate. I got to 'm' in the folders and am really desperate to recover the rest of the files, especially one of 'photos'.

Sorry to be so long winded, but thought the more information I can give to my situation the better it is.

I have rebooted from the cd and the windows xp disk which did not complete

I have done a chkdsk /r whcih came up with this message

I rebooted with the windows disk in and started the process again and got the message 'the following list shows the exiasting partitions etc etc' Unknow Disk (there is no disk in this drive) Options given ENTER Install D Delete Partition F3 Quit

I haven't gone any further as I didn't want to possibly jeopardise retriving my files.

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I haven't gone any further as I didn't want to possibly jeopardise retriving my files.

What can I do? All help greatly appreciated

Thanks in advance!

Basically you are stuck (IF the idea is to recover the filesystem) with a probability of 30 to 80 % .

IF you are looking to recover files (namely photos/Images) AND IF the disk is detected in BIOS AND IF the disk had been defragged recently (before the filesystem issues began to show) THEN you have good probabilities, nearing 90% or more to recover them as files.

How big is the failed/failing hard disk?

How big is the new USB disk?

How much free space you have on it?

What you need is enough free space on a disk to contain TWICE the whole size of the "failing disk" (or two disks each one with enough space to hold the full contents of the old disk).

Doing *anything* without this requirement fulfilled FIRST is STRONGLY NOT advised.

and detail as much as you can the hardware you have available and what you remember of how the disk was partitioned, if it was recently defragged, etc. etc.

Please take note that no matter the (completely fake ) probabilities of failure of success, IF a filesystem recovery is possible the result will be essentially the files just as you had them before, whilst if this is not possible a file based recovery will - IF succesful - a number of "good" images BUT withouut their original names and paths.

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I haven't gone any further as I didn't want to possibly jeopardise retriving my files.

What can I do? All help greatly appreciated

Thanks in advance!

Basically you are stuck (IF the idea is to recover the filesystem) with a probability of 30 to 80 % .

IF you are looking to recover files (namely photos/Images) AND IF the disk is detected in BIOS AND IF the disk had been defragged recently (before the filesystem issues began to show) THEN you have good probabilities, nearing 90% or more to recover them as files.

How big is the failed/failing hard disk?

How big is the new USB disk?

How much free space you have on it?

What you need is enough free space on a disk to contain TWICE the whole size of the "failing disk" (or two disks each one with enough space to hold the full contents of the old disk).

Doing *anything* without this requirement fulfilled FIRST is STRONGLY NOT advised.

and detail as much as you can the hardware you have available and what you remember of how the disk was partitioned, if it was recently defragged, etc. etc.

Please take note that no matter the (completely fake ) probabilities of failure of success, IF a filesystem recovery is possible the result will be essentially the files just as you had them before, whilst if this is not possible a file based recovery will - IF succesful - a number of "good" images BUT withouut their original names and paths.

jaclaz

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I searched the internet using google and came across a post from 2005 on this forum which discussed the problem I am having, although it didn't seem to have a conclusion, the assistance given was very good.

I have a fujitsu-siemens scaleo t desktop which from the posts I have read seems like my hard drive is on it's last legs. Which is ok because I recently bought a seagate external hard drive so that I could backup and copy all the files from my pc (which I had been using mainly for storage) as I have a laptop.

I had an idea that as the make of the pc is not all that good I may start to have problems and was trying to pre-empt ...... unfortunately it seems the pc has beaten me to it and started to die before I could get all the files off the hard drive onto the seagate. I got to 'm' in the folders and am really desperate to recover the rest of the files, especially one of 'photos'.

Sorry to be so long winded, but thought the more information I can give to my situation the better it is.

I have rebooted from the cd and the windows xp disk which did not complete

I have done a chkdsk /r whcih came up with this message

I rebooted with the windows disk in and started the process again and got the message 'the following list shows the exiasting partitions etc etc' Unknow Disk (there is no disk in this drive) Options given ENTER Install D Delete Partition F3 Quit

I haven't gone any further as I didn't want to possibly jeopardise retriving my files.

What can I do? All help greatly appreciated

Thanks in advance!

This was the much appreciated reply from jaclaz

Basically you are stuck (IF the idea is to recover the filesystem) with a probability of 30 to 80 % .

IF you are looking to recover files (namely photos/Images) AND IF the disk is detected in BIOS AND IF the disk had been defragged recently (before the filesystem issues began to show) THEN you have good probabilities, nearing 90% or more to recover them as files.

How big is the failed/failing hard disk?

How big is the new USB disk?

How much free space you have on it?

What you need is enough free space on a disk to contain TWICE the whole size of the "failing disk" (or two disks each one with enough space to hold the full contents of the old disk).

Doing *anything* without this requirement fulfilled FIRST is STRONGLY NOT advised.

and detail as much as you can the hardware you have available and what you remember of how the disk was partitioned, if it was recently defragged, etc. etc.

Please take note that no matter the (completely fake ) probabilities of failure of success, IF a filesystem recovery is possible the result will be essentially the files just as you had them before, whilst if this is not possible a file based recovery will - IF succesful - a number of "good" images BUT withouut their original names and paths.

jaclaz

So here's my post:

The 'old' pc is a Fujitsu Siemens scaleo T. I think the hard drive was possibly 320gb, but can't be certain. I have no idea how it was partitioned. It was defragged a few weeks before, but nothing had been added since.

How big is the failed/failing hard disk? I can't remember but it was the largest at the time, which was 2003, possibly 160gb 0r 320gb. Can I maybe see this on the outer cover?

How big is the new USB disk? 1TB - Seagate Freeagent GoFlex drive

How much free space you have on it? 909 gb free

I am really wanting to just retrieve the files/folders from the hard drive so that I can open them on my new laptop or store on the external hard drive. The 'old' pc is just a bag of bones now, lol!

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How big is the failed/failing hard disk? I can't remember but it was the largest at the time, which was 2003, possibly 160gb 0r 320gb. Can I maybe see this on the outer cover?

How big is the new USB disk? 1TB - Seagate Freeagent GoFlex drive

How much free space you have on it? 909 gb free

I am really wanting to just retrieve the files/folders from the hard drive so that I can open them on my new laptop or store on the external hard drive. The 'old' pc is just a bag of bones now, lol!

Very good you have more than enough available space.

First thing you should do is to create a "forensic sound" or "dd-like" or "sector by sector" image of the probelmatic disk.

To do this you will need EITHER an "alternate" way to boot the "old" PC (like a boot CD or USB stick or make the Freeagent GoFlex drive bootable -this latter may take some time) if the CD drive is operational and you have another PC with a CD recorder (and a writable CD ) the boot CD is probably the easiest of the options OR a way to connect the "old" hard disk to a fully functions PC (like an USB external enclosure or - better - another desktop to which you can attache the "old" hard disk as "slave".

The above step (doing an image of the hard disk is STRONGLY suggested and may be - depending on the situation of the "old" disk - "absolutely necessary".

Then the "recommended" attempt is to do a filesystem recovery, IF it works, you will have the contents of your "old" disk exactly or nearly exactly as they were.

Alternative is to attempt a files based recovery, you will likely get your files with a simpler procedure but they will likely be "mixed together" in a single folder and surely they will be all renamed to a (meanigless) name, i.e. if you have a file that was (say) C:\MyPhotos\Holidays\Spain2008\alhambra.jpg, it may turn out as (say) E:\Recovered\0003456.jpg

Up to you the choice of which path you want to take, this may depend also on the time you have available for this, your level of familiarity with tools/OSes, etc.

Here you can find a few examples of past recoveries, just to have a "general" idea of the possible complexity of the steps you have before you (filesystem recovery):

For file based recovery there are tools (namely PHOTOREC) that are easier to use:

after a few unsuccessful attempts with filesystem recovery, file based one was used:

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Thanks for the link to ultimate boot cd. I've downloaded the file iLividsetupv1. Should I run this file on my laptop and then burn the folder and files from it or burn this actual downloaded file to a cd and then insert in the cd drive of my 'old' poorly pc?

Thanks

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Now you need to burn the ISO image to CD. This is another topic that frequently trips up newbies who are not familiar with their CD recording software, such as Nero or Easy CD Creator. Some of you end up burning the ISO file itself to the CD, or some other weird results.

The easiest way to burn the ISO file to CD is to use a small specialized freeware such as BurnCDCC or Active@ ISO Burner. For further assistance, refer to the tutorials section for help with burning the ISO image to CD with various popular CD recording software. Where possible, experiment with CDRW discs instead of CDR discs so that you can start over if something goes wrong, instead of churning out coasters.

Go the Freeware route (unless you already have a commercial burning software). Google those package names, download, install on the good PC (where you should have downloaded the ISO Image), and burn the Image (which is an IMAGE of a CD) to a CD. Another relatively good Freeware is ImgBurn.

ImgBurn example -

Select Mode (tab at top) - Write

Select File->Browse (browse to the ISO image and select it)

Select your Burner (be sure a blank CD is in it)

Click on the bottom "Write"

With commercial burning software, usually you just have to have a blank CD in the burner and double-click on the downloaded ISO (software figures out it's an Image).

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Thanks for the link to ultimate boot cd. I've downloaded the file iLividsetupv1. Should I run this file on my laptop and then burn the folder and files from it or burn this actual downloaded file to a cd and then insert in the cd drive of my 'old' poorly pc?

Share this post

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Now you need to burn the ISO image to CD. This is another topic that frequently trips up newbies who are not familiar with their CD recording software, such as Nero or Easy CD Creator. Some of you end up burning the ISO file itself to the CD, or some other weird results.

The easiest way to burn the ISO file to CD is to use a small specialized freeware such as BurnCDCC or Active@ ISO Burner. For further assistance, refer to the tutorials section for help with burning the ISO image to CD with various popular CD recording software. Where possible, experiment with CDRW discs instead of CDR discs so that you can start over if something goes wrong, instead of churning out coasters.

Go the Freeware route (unless you already have a commercial burning software). Google those package names, download, install on the good PC (where you should have downloaded the ISO Image), and burn the Image (which is an IMAGE of a CD) to a CD. Another relatively good Freeware is ImgBurn.

ImgBurn example -

Select Mode (tab at top) - Write

Select File->Browse (browse to the ISO image and select it)

Select your Burner (be sure a blank CD is in it)

Click on the bottom "Write"

With commercial burning software, usually you just have to have a blank CD in the burner and double-click on the downloaded ISO (software figures out it's an Image).

Share this post

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Share on other sites

Now you need to burn the ISO image to CD. This is another topic that frequently trips up newbies who are not familiar with their CD recording software, such as Nero or Easy CD Creator. Some of you end up burning the ISO file itself to the CD, or some other weird results.

The easiest way to burn the ISO file to CD is to use a small specialized freeware such as BurnCDCC or Active@ ISO Burner. For further assistance, refer to the tutorials section for help with burning the ISO image to CD with various popular CD recording software. Where possible, experiment with CDRW discs instead of CDR discs so that you can start over if something goes wrong, instead of churning out coasters.

Go the Freeware route (unless you already have a commercial burning software). Google those package names, download, install on the good PC (where you should have downloaded the ISO Image), and burn the Image (which is an IMAGE of a CD) to a CD. Another relatively good Freeware is ImgBurn.

ImgBurn example -

Select Mode (tab at top) - Write

Select File->Browse (browse to the ISO image and select it)

Select your Burner (be sure a blank CD is in it)

Click on the bottom "Write"

With commercial burning software, usually you just have to have a blank CD in the burner and double-click on the downloaded ISO (software figures out it's an Image).

Share this post

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Thanks for the link to ultimate boot cd. I've downloaded the file iLividsetupv1. Should I run this file on my laptop and then burn the folder and files from it or burn this actual downloaded file to a cd and then insert in the cd drive of my 'old' poorly pc?